As I looked through the glass of Jonquils Café & Bakery’s display case, I felt like I’d been transported into the future.
A number of small, 3D shapes lined the case: polygonal apples, orange cubes made of tiny spheres, a red, many-faced hexagon. At first glance, they almost looked like bizarre art pieces.
In actuality, the shapes are edible: They’re Jonquils' new line of mousse desserts made from 3D-printed molds. They’re also, in my personal opinion, absolutely delicious.
The desserts are designed by Ukrainian pastry chef Dinara Kasko. An architect by study, Kasko had been working in interior design for a few years when her interest in cooking and baking piqued. She was particularly interested in presentation. It was very important to her that a meal was beautifully presented and served.
“And what can be more beautiful than a cake?” said Kasko in a TedX talk.
Kasko began to use cake molds, but she found herself frustrated by the way they restrained her creativity. So she decided to make her own. With 3D printing, Kasko uses any 3D modeling software to create designs. She then prints out the shape, which she calls the “prototype,” and pours silicone over it. In a few hours, it hardens, producing a mold.
Each dessert has up to six layers. The Lime Basil, for example, has lime jelly, marshmallow cream, cheese mousse, white sponge and coconut.
“It’s very interesting in terms of texture and flavor profile,” said Dmitri Shurygin, a pastry chef at Jonquils. “If you try the whole line, you’ll see that they’re all completely different.”
Personally, I decided to try the Lime Basil and the Exotique Spheres. The Lime Basil was shaped like an artichoke and was delightfully light. The tang of the lime paired well with the part-sweet, part-savory flavor of the basil, and the marshmallow endowed it with a fluffy, bouncy texture. The Exotique Spheres, on the other hand, was flavored with mango and passionfruit. It was essentially a cube made from rows of orange spheres, each filled with vanilla mousse and mango and passionfruit cremeux. Another light dessert, it tasted refreshing and tropical. It was my personal favorite of the two.
I also sampled the Screaming Eagle, a mix of jasmine tea and lemonade, and the Blue Moon Matcha Milk Tea, matcha milk tea mixed with jasmine and butterfly pea flower powder, which gave it a bright blue layer to contrast the matcha’s natural green. (If I had to choose between the two, I’d select the Matcha Milk Tea, which my milk tea-loving self very much enjoyed.)
In the fall, Jonquils Café & Bakery will be swapping out its fruity summer flavors for autumn additions.
“We want to give people changes,” said Shurygin. “We want to give people different experiences so they come back and enjoy it every single time.”
